Michele, Michele, Michele

According to the liberal website Think Progress, Bachmann, whose grasp of history on the trail at times has been somewhat shaky, said during a radio interview Thursday that Americans today are mindful of the threat posed by a rising U.S.S.R., which, like Elvis, left the building a long, long time ago. ...

“What people recognize is that there’s a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and our loss militarily going forward,” Bachmann said on conservative activist Jay Sekulow’s show. “And especially with this very bad debt ceiling bill, what we have done is given a favor to President Obama, and the first thing he’ll whack is 500 billion out of the military defense at a time when we’re fighting three wars. People recognize that.”

Now, most Republicans should have been aghast at this mistake. After all, Saint Ronald of Reagan single-handedly vanquished the Soviet Union. Everybody knows that. Well, apparently everybody but Michele Bachman.

To be fair, Bachman probably just conflated the two terms used to describe a particular country, depending on the historical period. She has a habit of doing that: conflating John Wayne and John Wayne Gacy when referring to an Iowa birthplace; conflating the birth date and date of death of Elvis Presley. It's just that she does that sort of thing a lot, as if it were intentional. Or a symptom of a rather serious cognitive disorder.

Regardless of the cause of these gaffes, it does make her an easy target for the press and for her opponents. While pointing out the errors didn't do much good for Tim Pawlenty's campaign, as crunch time draws near, the other Republican candidates will be looking for an edge, and her confusing, say, North and South Korea might very well provide that edge.

What surprises me, however, is the fact that the GOP suddenly seems to have a whole treasure trove of women candidates who are prone to such nonsense: Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnell, Sharon Angle, Michele Bachman. Meanwhile, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, who is certainly not my favorite person but who at least has an intact intellect, loses an election to Rick Perry.